


New Horizons Within Our Sights

by SpazzyPink



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe Endgame Spoilers
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Other, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), all my uwu's, just a good piece of tony meeting bruce all Prof like, takes place slightly after infinity war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 19:26:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18666850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpazzyPink/pseuds/SpazzyPink
Summary: Tony and Bruce catch up after Bruce falls off the map for a while after the events of Infinity War. The surprise Bruce has to offer is more than Tony was expecting. Turns out Bruce was doing some much needed "self work" projects than he let on.





	New Horizons Within Our Sights

**Author's Note:**

> Just a fluff piece because I was enamored by the idea of Tony finding out his buddy was now a giant green Happy Chad Guy. We never got anything with how Tony felt about Bruce or how he reacted at first, but it seems like every (remaining) Avenger was fairly used to this change for Bruce being all integrated and all by the time the time skip in Endgame came around. Society loved the boy, It warms a woman's heart. 
> 
> No doubt Tony is on the sideline cheering on his friend, even if he's at home "retired" with a daughter.
> 
> This is a one shot, but more fun ones to come honestly.

Bruce left only a trail of text messages, quick and some lacking punctuation. A man goes off the radar for a few months to work on himself, and this is the introduction he gives. 

 

**[ Bruce:] I've got great news I've been making a lot of discoveries in my time away. I want you to come over to my lab.**

 

**[Tony:] Most people take longer sabbaticals, brucie. But I'm glad you're back. I got news for you too.**

 

**[Bruce:] My surprise is better than yours. I promise. This Friday around lunch?**

 

**[Tony:] I'll bring the usual.**

 

**[Bruce:] Make it a double order.**

 

_________

 

Tony approached the base's labs, three large take out bags filled to the brim with styrofoam containers balanced in his hands. The man said double and he'd deliver.

Bruce left the door open, Tony hearing the sounds of shuffling chairs, some cleaning up. Tony called out into the room. “You in there, champ?”

A voice deeper but distant seemed to reverb out of a supply closet. “Yeah, I'm in here! Meet me on the patio outside. I'll be out in a minute. Gotta wash my hands.” 

Tony dutifully waddled his way to the patio, walking by rooms of every quietness. Who even came back here? The remaining team seemed to use it as operations but it felt quieter with some missing.

Tony brushed off the awkwardness and sat down, laying out food on the large picnic table he summoned with a click of his foot to the ground. The table unfolded and formed from the lower storage like technological magic. Or just Stark technology he'd call it. 

What was the Good Doctor up to these days and why did his voice sound so hoarse? Was he alright? OR what the reverb of the room drowning out his softer tone? Tony laid out the food and sat. And was he glad he sat down.

Out came, with a shy little knock, so cheeky, against the glass door…. Bruce. OR what was now Bruce. He was nearly 8 feet tall and green, lips snarled in a hulk-like smile and him hooking a smirk so almost like his normal half-hearted amusements. But rather than it being truly half-hearted, it was playful, coy, it was real.

 

But God, how could he get past him being…. So green? And so. Big. Tony blinked, trying to recoup with a snark. 

“When were you gonna tell me about the ‘upgrades’ you’ve been making, Brucie?”

The towering figure rubbed the back of his neck, stepping out with surprisingly quiet and soft (barefoot) footsteps. “Well, uh. Now, I guess. I wanted it to be a good time.”

“A good time is going through a gallon of Stark Hazelnuts by the fireplace with Pep. This is some nobel news you got here, big guy.”

 

Bruce blushed a deep hue of green, Tony stammering up from his seat to reach up and pat some thick muscle of his arm. “Look at you, you’re built like a tree trunk. You’ve been working out?”

Bruce would have normally told him to stop with the compliments, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t love them. It was great news, fantastic wonderful great news. And someone important to him was ecstatic with the results of hard work and therapy off the grid for a while. “Well, I’ve been working on more things than just new scientific discoveries, let's just say.”

 

“What was it? Yoga? Kale? A little  _ Eat, Pray, Love? _ Spill.”

“I started talking to someone.”

“Don’t break my heart.”

“Not like that. Like. As in a therapist, Tony. A real one. And after all that time looking at Hulk like a disease, I started thinking of him as the cure. Something…. Different. I was looking at the whole problem wrong for years.”

“And now you’ve cracked the code.”

“Yes, exactly!” He was starting to get excited, a hulky smile on his face and his hands clapping together in instinct, a happy stim. “It feels like…. This is who I was meant to be.”

 

Tony nodded once or twice, and mouthed a breathy, “Wow.” He patted Bruce’s big old arm again. “I’m proud of you. I’m so… just wow. Look at all of you.” Tony gave a warm smile, greying goatee warm and speckled and inviting. He was softer now. He was going to be a dad.

“Look at you, Big guy, you’re _strutting._ ”

 

Bruce could have cried, if not for the allure of take out, by the display of…. Such appreciation. Such admiration. Tony meant it. When everyone else adapted or dealt with him, Tony took Bruce in stride from the day he heard he’d work with him. Back when aliens tried destroying the city and they were fighting just one powerful being and things were crazy but simpler somehow. When they found out they weren’t alone in the universe. 

And now Bruce was the walking Hulkish oddity and it felt like he finally sit right in his skin for the first time in years. He didn’t crouch and try to vanish. He existed, large and in charge. He strode in with confidence and yet that same meek charm in some ways. He was whole (and Bruce felt that way too.)

They exchanged delighted smiles for a moment, and shook their heads together and laughed. Bruce interrupted with an offer for a hug. “Bring it here. I’ll only crush you a little bit.”

Tony happily hugged him tightly (a gnat compared to his big friend now) and felt some tension in his heart loosen. His friend found some happiness too. Finally. It was a start, just like Tony’s was a start. A start of so many good things to come. Tony interrupted, wheezing to a slightly too tight hug. “Alright, big guy, enough of that-- food’s getting cold.”

“Sorry, it’s becoming a force of habit.” Bruce offered the biggest, beaming smile Tony ever saw on his face before, before shaking his head and adjusting his glasses back to the bridge of his nose (did he even need them anymore?). Things were rough, and they lost, but they didn’t lose everything. There were still things to hold onto dearly. 

 

Maybe the future didn’t seem so bad.

 

There were good things on the horizon yet.


End file.
